BRENNAN'S ADIEU.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 14, 25 July 1884, Page 29

BRENNAN'S ADIEU.

(San Francisco Monitor.') A I.ABG-B audience attended the farewell lecture by Thomas Brennan at Metropolitan Hall on Wednesday, the 7th. of May. Mr. Mr. Brennan spoke on " The Life and Labours of Thomas Davis," saying : " Davis, while alive, was unknown out of that small circle of brilliant writers and patriots whose soul he was. It was only when dea r l that he was recognised as the hope of that country endeavouring to redeem itself from foreign slavery aad the demon of internal strife, and that the people learned what a loving disposition and brave heart he was. One of the evils of the provincial condition of our country is in is that she is drained of her wealth. Modern customs have bo captured and degraded people that they accept nothing that does not bear the mark of English gentility. There are few outs'de of Ireland who know of Thomas Davis, of James Clareace Mangan, or of Lady Wilde, other than as the mother of Osoar. Ireland baa produced many a devoted patriot, and many a siucere reformer, but she has given birth to but one Thomas Davis. If OTer Ireland be free, above all the names who struggled for her freedom, will appear the name of him who found her in religious and internal ' broils add who breathed balm on her wounds, our guide and prophet, Thomas Davis. His poems breathe the very creed of patriotism. The songs of Thomas Davis touched the Irish heart, and there came not forth lamentations, bat the music of hope for the future., How much do we, who think we are accomplishing something for our country's freedom, owe to him who ia now sleeping in Mount Jerome Cemetery 1 Never did God breathe a purer spirit into human clay than when he sent him forth as a preacher among men, and never did finer ashes mingle with Irish soil than when his country at last pressed Thomas Davis to its bosom. He grew up amid O'Connell'a agitation. O'Connell's Catholic Emancipation Bill placed the ermine on a few Catholic aristocrats, butit brougnt no additional comfort to the cabid of the poor man. It elevated to the beach a few Catholic aristocrats who thanked their God they had a country to sell, and from which they hurledthe Irish patriots on to the scaffold. A few young professional men joined tbe|national movement. Half of them were Protestants. One of them was Charles Gavan Duffy, his honest name before he fell down beEorc the noble trappingsof his country's oppressors. They were brave and scholarly men, united in devotion to Thomas Davis, their leader, and Ireland their common mother. They believed in elevating the Irish race and directing it to a noble aim. They came to teach a new gospel, that of brotherly love, to all Irishmen, and undying hate to their oppressors. It was Davis' influence, generous trust, broad toleration, that brought to the movement men of intellect and refinement irrespective of religion. As a consequence, he brought exile to m<»ny a countryman, desolation and death to many an Irish heart ; but there was not one that did not follow him to the rack with a guiding trust, for he had filled their hearts with an impassioned love for their native land. His creed was Ireland a nation, and that the people should cease to bate each other for the love of God. He taught liberty and equality. Davis was no speaker. He was much more— a thinker and writer. Never did his pen write a word that was not dictated by honesty and truth. Davis, Dillon, and Duffy started a national paper, whose fountain has flowed in bright streams through our land. The Press then was servile. The reception of bis utterances by the gentility and the artisan gave evidence that no matter how the people cheer the man who praises their imaginary virtues, they despise the roan who dares not tell them the truth. Davis brought the light iuto every Irish home. He said, " Ignorance induces sycophancy. Let the young men get knowledge. Educate that you may be free. The highest training is that of character." There is nothing in that about the finest people in the world, but there is that which will redeem the Irish people if they are ever to be redeemed. Davis presented the case of Ireland in every phase. He argued that the interests of England and Ireland were diametrically opposite, and that the prosperity of the one meant the ruination of the other. Englaud then", as now, misrepresented us before the world. She robbed us and then called us beggars, took the arms of resistance from us, and then called us cowards. Davis presented Ireland's case in a true light. Ho laboured, as we are doing now, to create public opinion everywhere repugnant to England's opposition and favourable to Ireland's struggle. He laboured to create a foreign policy for Ireland. Whatever O'Dooovan Kossa is to-day, barbarity made him. Gladstone's policy is such as ha 9 been practised for centuries. Davis was for liberty wherever its fair form was assailed. He was for Italy for the Italians as well as Ireland for the Irish. The lecturer recited Davis's poem beginning, "Oh ! for a steed," and continued : Davis believed, as we believe, that the wrongs of Ireland justify every means known to honourable and courageous men for redress. But he believed also in prudence and in biding our time (ill the right moment came. He had a supreme contempt for powder and shot and baptism of blood from those men who would be the laßt to give effect to their words. He was a poet of the first but not impracticable. He was an organiser and inaugurator. His eoul 6ickened as he tried to breathe the principles of republicanism into the people, so wrapt were they in demonstiations of royalty. He endeavoured to dispel the mists of religious prejudice from the Irish mind. He, a Protestant, pledged his word that his Catholic fellow countrymen would unite to tear down any system that was based on creeds. He taughtthem that their tenant-right and freedom had nothing to do with the thirty-nine articles. He instilled the principles of self-reliance into the people's hearts. Let us feel to-day if Ireland is to be free by the brawn, the brain, the strong arm of her sons. Certain men have said that the Land Leagus is opposed to the teachings of Davis, more especially P. J. Smith, the renegade of '48, and that person wbo misrepresents the county of Mayo in Parliament. Davis struck the keynote for the total extirpation of those leeches wbo were sucking their country's life away. Many have claimed to bave originated the Land League, but Davis anticipated all its doctrines by more than thirty years. Spirit of Thomas Davis ! Know to-night that however elße we have not obeyed tby teachings,

in this, at least, we have been faithful— that a united Ireland is determined to drive the landlords from oat the land 1 Know that the blades of Irish vengeance have been whetted on the tombstones of the victim 1 ? of English cruelty ! Davis died young, and the light went out in the Irish sky, the bond that held bo many bright intellects was broken. He died among scenes calculated to sadden such a spirit as his. Davis died, and the clods that fell on the coffin lid were never before wet with the tears of so many strong men. Davis died, and the Irish people were like sheep without a shepherd when the smows begin to fall. Mr. Brcunan spoke for an hour aad forty minutes, and concluded as follows : " And now as we turn from his grave we can best serve our country by taking lessons from his life aad making that life our model in our onward march to freedom. Let us be in earnest as ho was— earnestness is the true secret of success. Let us avoid that brag and bombast that was so hateful to his nature. Let us go on to the path'of right and truth, no matter how the tongue of scandal may assail us. To you, young men of the Irish race, especially, belongs the memory of Davis. It was you for whom he wrote and laboured. It wa9 you be tried to enlist in the crusade for Irish liberty. Make his life your model : study every word be wrote : it will elevate your natures and make you feel that there is something above living a coward's life and dying a coward's death. If you waste your lives away in the follies of the age, if you consult only your own pleasures, if you go with the whirlwind of modern depravity and allow this age to .pass away without accomplishing anything for your country, a future generation of Irishmen will execrate your memories. Ah ! my young countrymen, you in whose hands rests the future of our country, her glory or her shame, her freedom or her Blavery, let my last words be to you. Let me ask you to remember that God has given you lives for another purpose than to be the play toys of passion and of fashion. Life is a serious thing. Act well your part in that life, and God will yet reward your fidelity and truth and give you strength to free the land you fondly call your own. You have bad terrible odds to contend against ; the advantages forced on the young men of other countries were jealously withheld from you at home. Let this fact but move to work the harder so as to keep up in tbe race of life with your more favoured brothers. Let the night school, the reading room, the club for the interchange of thought and the cultivation of brotherly love, be the attraction instead of the places where so many young lives have been wasted away. If you take a part in. the affairs of your adopted country do so as men of honour and honesty. Let the glory of that land that has given you a,refuge and a home be your first consideration, and in adding glory to her renown you will reflect part of that glory on the land that gave you birth. Correct all the faults and weaknesses and follies engendered by the system under which we lived, and with souls strengthened by resolution and hearts buoyed up by hope, go forward in the battle of life and to the struggle of your country's freedom. Do you not hear that country's call ? A voice comes across the Atlantic ; it comes borne on the winds of Heaven ; it breaks o'er the air as the morning splendour breaks on the eye ; it is your coun try' a invocation. A living writer has tried to interpret it : ' O brave Young Men, my love, my pride, my promise 'Tis on. you my hopes are set, In manliness, in kindliness, in justice To make Ireland a nation yet. Self-respecting, self-relying, self-advancing, In union or in severance free and strong ; And if (Jod grant this, then, under God, to Thomas Davis Let the greatest praise belong 1 ' And now, farewell, and " God save Ireland."